Future Plans

Yours?

Leaving this world is our final act on Earth. The disposition of the body that has so well served us in life is a choice best made while we are alive and not left as a burden for others to solve in the midst of their grief over losing you. Many of us have experienced the confusion around dealing with the remains of a loved one and perhaps falling prey to the funeral industry as it exists in this country. The beauty of establishing in advance exactly what one wants done with ones remains is an act of love and respect to your friends and family . . . the last act of yours on Earth.

Some of us here on the White Eagle staff have picked out our own final resting places on the burial ground here. What a freeing and beautiful thing this is! Being able to go there occasionally, sit and feel one’s connection already in place with one little corner of paradise on Earth is a very comforting and peaceful thing. To look up in the branches of a tree you might one day nourish or to lean back against it's trunk staring out into the canyon seems to help release some of the fear around death that most of us carry.

Whatever your thoughts about how you want your body to be dealt with, we urge you to make those details clear in writing (perhaps along with your will) to your loved ones so when death’s inevitable arrow eventually finds its mark, those you leave behind can faithfully carry out your choice in a clear and unburdened fashion. And for this they will thank you! If your last wishes aren't clearly expressed, it's easy for loved ones to just do what seems easiest -- a phenomenon you might call Leave It to Bereav-er.

Winter grave site at White Eagle

Ours:

We have much envisioned for the White Eagle Burial Ground! We have marked the corners with beautiful iron lighting bolt-like sculptures by metal artist and long-time Ekone friend, David Govedare. Signage and a kiosk are in the works so that all who come here will easily be able to understand what the memorial preserve is all about and be able to find there way around on the land and it’s trails. We are looking into the possibility of training some of our horses, or getting a team of them to pull a carriage so we can offer a truly exquisite “last ride.”

Our ongoing thinning and ecological forestry operation on some parts of the Sacred Earth Foundation land will provide materials for Bob’s casket making which over time, knowing him, will surely become an art form. We are also exploring unique ways for folks to get out to the burial grounds who may not want to walk. Solar-powered golf carts are one option. We have a chapel planned.

No, no, there is no going back.
Less and less you are
that possibility you were.
More and more you have become
those lives and deaths
that have belonged to you.
You have become a sort of grave
containing much that was
and is no more in time, beloved
then, now, and always.
And so you have become a sort of tree
standing over the grave.
Now more than ever you can be
generous toward each day
that comes, young, to disappear
forever, and yet remain
unaging in the mind.
Every day you have less reason
not to give yourself away.

~ Wendell Berry ~